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Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by UncleMeat on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @01:10PM (#21816581)
This is a ridiculous interpretation.

If Jeff Bezos sent an email to the company saying "We want retail revenue to increase by X% by 2023" would you assume that they'd shutter the whole thing if they didn't meet that goal? Of course not.

Why is a goal and strategy for Google treated differently?

Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by cranky_coder on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @01:15PM (#21816656)
How is it ridiculous? The article said GCP would receive reduced invesment if that target isn't met. It's a bit hard to grow without investing, so it smells to me like a precursor to sustained engineering.
Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by Spooky23 on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @01:28PM (#21816820)
Google is dumping billions into GCP right now.

Google migrated from a weird, Apple like "come buy stuff from us, but first solve this riddle" sales process with reps with huge territories to a more traditional enterprise model. Based on Linkedin updates, the Oracle class of 2015 has basically moved in on the sales side. Those guys usually make premium bank, so they need to bang out deals or GTFO.

Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by ajross on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @02:03PM (#21817330)
> The article said GCP would receive reduced invesment if that target isn't met.

And the comments upthread said that GCP would be terminated instantly if that target isn't met. You genuinely don't see the disconnect in that interpretation?

Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by pwinnski on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @03:37PM (#21818517)
Google has built a strong reputation as a company that shuts down any product or service that isn't #1 in the target market. it is not unreasonable to believe that might extend to their third- or fourth-place GCP product.
Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by mullingitover on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @01:12PM (#21816606)
Google has a well established track record of killing things that aren't working out.
Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by the-pigeon on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @01:13PM (#21816615)
Worst than that. Google only seems interested in huge successes.

Things like Google Reader had healthy user bases when Google came for them in the night.

They could even sell most of the products they murder to someone else for millions.

Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by dave5104 on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @01:36PM (#21816944)
> Things like Google Reader had healthy user bases when Google came for them in the night.

I wonder if anyone in Google management ever looks back and regrets that decision?

It's still always being brought up, even 6.5 years later.

Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by sylens on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @01:52PM (#21817167)
It was the end of the halo effect for Google amongst the prosumer crowd, definitely.
Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by bhl on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @02:13PM (#21817458)
I always see google reader talked about on hackernews, but has a comparable product not have been made by someone else yet?
Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by lallysingh on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @02:44PM (#21817841)
There are plenty, actually. But RSS itself is essentially dead. At least compared to what it was.
Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by Multicomp on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @06:41PM (#21820274)
So I just counted my RSS feeds via Live Bookmarks (dang you Firefox for killing them shakes cane) and I have 60+(! I expected like 30 tops) RSS feeds that I check regularly.

Most sites have RSS feeds, even the heavy hitters like YouTube.

Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by juped on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @04:24PM (#21819000)
How is it dead? Everything still exports RSS feeds.
Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by lallysingh on Wednesday December 18, 2019 @10:30AM (#21825801)
The last time I tried RSS again (I was a big reader user), every feed had a on paragraph summary and link to the full article on the website.

I couldn't actually read the news in it anymore.

Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by vkou on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @02:55PM (#21817996)
Nothing that is widely used, because as it turns out, RSS is not the web technology of the future. Or the present, really.
Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by deegles on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @03:10PM (#21818188)
Side note, I remember the next 5 or so most popular alternatives to Reader being overloaded for weeks after the shutdown.
Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by NikkiA on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @06:58PM (#21820400)
I still use feedly almost daily.
Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by res0nat0r on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @02:05PM (#21817346)
I'm guessing that the current revenue of GCP vs. Google Reader tells management that they made a smart decision.
Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by harryh on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @01:29PM (#21816840)
They could even sell most of the products they murder to someone else for millions.

It would have cost Google more money to sell Reader than anyone would have bought it for.

Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by bryanrasmussen on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @01:49PM (#21817113)
That's a statement that cries out for analysis, although I'm not doubting you could be right still - it's not the kind of thing one just states without backing it up.
Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by harryh on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @02:01PM (#21817301)
Reader was written using a bunch of proprietary Google tools, deployed on proprietary Google infrastructure and used a proprietary Google system for authentication.

It's hard to even imagine how it could have been split apart from the mothership at all.

Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by bryanrasmussen on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @03:05PM (#21818136)
Thanks!
Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by UncleMeat on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @04:12PM (#21818892)
Where is RSS now? Are there products that filled the niche left by Reader?

No. The technology died. Isn't this clear evidence that the product was dead in the water?

Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by juped on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @04:25PM (#21819020)
It's literally in a <link> element on the very website you're posting on, dude
Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by JohnJamesRambo on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @01:20PM (#21816723)
I wouldn’t say that, they also kill things that are working out.
Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by UncleMeat on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @04:11PM (#21818881)
What was Reader's revenue? Were literally thousands of people working on it?

These are not really comparable worlds.

Re:Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microso... by bryanrasmussen on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @03:24PM (#21818375)
If he sent an email to the company saying "We want retail revenue to increase by X% by 2023 or we will decrease our investments in the retail parts of the company" I might be worried that the retail parts of the company were going to enter into a death spiral given Amazon's problems with quality control already.

If I also thought it was unlikely that they would hit their target I would be really worried (assuming of course I had any reason to actually worry about how Amazon's business was doing)

If we were talking about a company that had a history of shutting down successful divisions because they were not successful enough I would think "hey 2023 is when the shutting down process is likely to start"